


The Fatherhood Chronicles - The Portrait

by Aragarna



Series: The Fatherhood Chronicles [3]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Family, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 05:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3162779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aragarna/pseuds/Aragarna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>tag to 6x05. <i>It's a boy, and he's perfect</i>. And he's real, if not born yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fatherhood Chronicles - The Portrait

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third installement of a series of ficlets following Peter's journey through fatherhood.

It’s a boy. A baby boy. Peter suddenly feels the tears rising in his eyes, joy mixing with the terrible guilt weighting down his chest.

“I really need to kiss you right now,” he says, his voice slightly trembling.

The eyes full of tears, Elizabeth reaches out and Peter steps in, taking her in his arms. He hugs her tightly and softly kisses her on the cheek. He hates himself for making El cry, for having ruined that moment for her, for already screwing his father duties. He wishes he could go back in time and fix the day, make things right for his family.

They shift to a more comfortable position, Peter taking seat on the armchair and Elizabeth seating on his lap. He keeps her wrapped in his hold, her head against his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Hon,” he whispers.

“I know,” she says in a low voice. And he can hear what she doesn’t say out loud. That it’s not enough.

“It won’t happen again, El, I promise.”

Elizabeth chuckles sadly. “Don’t make promises. You know something always happen to ruin it.”

“I’ll make efforts to change. I really want our baby, our baby boy, to be the top priority. Just give me some time to adjust.”

He gently weeps away the tears from Elizabeth’s eyes and they remain cuddled together for a moment. Peter takes his phone out of his pocket to open his mails, and he puts the video of the sonogram on. They look at it together. Peter’s heart is overwhelmed by love.

“Everything’s good so far. Heart, skull, arms, legs,” Elizabeth says with a more upbeat tone.

“Our little boy,” Peter says again, fascinated by the view of his future son.

As he looks at him, Peter knows he’ll do whatever he has to do for his family. He feels a slight knot in his stomach, knowing that he might have to take a serious decision regarding his work but he also knows this is right. He’ll adjust his priorities, because he wants to be a good father to his son.

“His first portrait,” Elizabeth smiles.

“It makes it so much more real, all of a sudden.”

“It does.”

“We should print it and put it on the chimney’s mantle with us.”

Elizabeth chuckles. “Shouldn’t we wait for him to be born before starting the picture spamming?”

“We’ll replace it when we’ll have a better one,” Peter says.

He wraps his hands around El’s round belly. “So, how do you want to name our wonderful baby boy?”

“I get to choose his name?”

“Sure,” Peter says, kissing her tenderly.

“How about Louis? Or maybe Tony?”

Peter ponders  those names a moment, trying to imagine himself with a baby Louis, or a baby Tony. “Louis. Louis Burke... Yes, I like it.”

They look at the picture a little longer. Finally, Elizabeth slowly extracts herself from Peter’s hold. “I’m exhausted, I’m going to bed.”

Peter stands up to walk her to the stairs. “I’ll join you in a bit. Goodnight, _mommy_ ,” he says with a wink as he kisses her one more time.

Elizabeth tilts her head tenderly and smiles. “Goodnight, daddy.”

 

 

To be continued....

[The Fatherhood Chronicles masterpost](http://aragarna.livejournal.com/110091.html)


End file.
